GW's New Releases: A Positive Perspective

[Charon]

And to think, just a couple of years ago the Interwebs were alive to people complaining about a slow release schedule. Now, it seems the eternal whiners have decided having now got what they asked, it's not what they wanted at all, and it should be slower...

How about a reasonable pace "in between"? Impossible? It must be either crawling or sprinting? 2nd Edition was the only Edition which managed to get every codex + (free) datasheets within one edition.
Every other edition was a chaos of outdated codices and incompatible rules. And while they started to sprint for 6th to 7th and try to rush out the remaining codices, 6th edition codex are not quite as compatible with 7th as the players would like to have (starting with PSI equipment). No problem as GW offers a regularly updated Errata and FAQ to... oh wait... they dont.

[Mr Mystery]

Oh there could be a happy middle ground for sure.

But I'd rather a rush of releases than a slow drip. Can make it tricky to keep up (I'm two books behind now), but I'd rather they were out there and updated than languishing with ancient Codecies as Necrons and Dark Eldar once did.

[Charon]

Sure... the rushed GK codex was amazing... so much new and exiting stuff...

[Mr Mystery]

One of the two I don't currently have (well, three if you count the Blood Angels Codex), so I can't make any kind of comment on that one.

However, does strike me that as an entirely psychic army, they were a bit of a priority for 7th Ed in general.

[Just_Me]

Once again, I do agree that I agree that a slightly slower pace (and maybe a few more creative additions/changes) would be preferable, and that the format is... questionable. However I think that, as a community, we do get too caught up in the nitpicking negativity sometimes. Even if the pacing isn't perfect it's exciting that we ARE getting everything updated, and after waiting for so long maybe faster isn't a bad thing.

The simple fact is that GW is never going to satisfy everyone, both their universe and us as a community are too diverse to make that realistic. The exciting thing (for me) is that they are showing that they are trying new things (not all of which are great). In the long run it makes me hopeful that they have an opportunity to really spice things up with new, fun, flavorful stuff like the old Chapter Approved used to. New characters, new units, new factions, new expansions; these things are now much MUCH more likely to become a reality.

In the end I figure we can either be upset that we aren't getting everything perfect, or we can look at a everything we ARE getting and the potential that we might get back some (or many) of the things we thought had disappeared (e.g. Knights) and even things we never thought we'd see.

[Lord-Boofhead]

How about a reasonable pace "in between"? Impossible? It must be either crawling or sprinting? 2nd Edition was the only Edition which managed to get every codex + (free) datasheets within one edition.

Someone forgot to tell the Squats,, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Mechanicus and the Grey Knights they had a codex, it will be news to them.

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Sure... the rushed GK codex was amazing... so much new and exiting stuff...

What did it need?

If they added new stuff folks would moan that the new stuff is over powered/underpowerd/looks stupid. They add nothing new, people moan that there isn't anything new.

[eldargal]

Yep it wasn't too long ago that people were complaining about every release needlessly inserting new units into books with retcons and whatnot and then when they don't GW are being lazy and it's soo reprehensible.

[Arkhan Land]

In the information age where everything is available online via sharing sites this kind of release schedule doesnt bug me, everybody gets the new codex/rulebook in one form or another and slowly as the release continues people buy the legal/and or hard copy. In an era where this wasnt the case it could be way more brutal financially to stay abreast of all the releases GW does

[Mr Mystery]

In the information age where everything is available online via sharing sites this kind of release schedule doesnt bug me, everybody gets the new codex/rulebook in one form or another and slowly as the release continues people buy the legal/and or hard copy. In an era where this wasnt the case it could be way more brutal financially to stay abreast of all the releases GW does

I just buy a legal copy off the bat, mostly because although I am really rather special, the laws of the land and respect for those who put time, effort and money into producing something I want, still compel me not to be a thieving git

[DarkLink]

What did it need?

Only to update a few rules and upgrades to bring some units that had fallen by the wayside (Dreadknights, Brotherhood Champions, etc) up to speed. And, sure, it did that with a few units (Dreadknights, Librarians, and Terminators, mainly), but it also castrated basically everything else (Dreadnoughts, Grand Masters, Interceptors, Strike Squads, Purgation Squads, Dreadnoughts). Plus when they removed half the codex (which was an ok thing, Inquisition and Assassins fit much better as an independent codex and dataslate respectively) they removed a number of key units that filled roles like, oh, anti-tank and cheap scoring units that were just a little bit important, and instead of giving GKs some new rules or tools to fill those now vacant gaps, they removed a lot of cool things like The Grand Strategy and didn't fill those roles.

So, sure, they didn't really need to add any new kits. On the other hand, being turned into a mono-build allied detachment for other armies is kind of annoying for people who actually like to play Grey Knights as actual Grey Knights. Both sides deserve the criticisms leveled at them, really. GW wrote a crappy book, but it isn't crappy in the ways that a lot of players have made it out to be.

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The fluff is pretty cool, though. There's some entertaining stuff in there.